WATCH the moment Tehran’s infamous Evin Prison – a pit of torture and executions – is blitzed by an Israeli airstrike.
A drone blew up the jail’s metal gates in a plot to free some of the regime’s fiercest critics who languish behind the walls.
TwitterEvin Prison is notorious for holing up political prisoners[/caption]
TwitterFootage appears to show a major explosion at its gates, and the IDF announced it had struck[/caption]
The entrance of Evin prison in Tehran before it was bombed
Leaked videos have previously emerged from inside the Evin showing beatings and poor conditions
The prison is notorious for shackling political prisoners, journalists and even Brits on bogus charges.
Footage shows a missile shooting directly into the gate, sending mangled pieces of metal flying.
Isareli PM Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly called for Iran’s people to rise up against the regime.
Busting open the prison seems to be an attempt to return anti-Ayatollah activists to the streets.
It’s not yet clear whether any inmates have escaped following the rocket blast.
The IDF acknowledged the strike: “Following orders from PM Netanyahu and Defense Minister Katz, the IDF is striking regime and security targets in central Tehran — including the Basij HQ, Evin Prison, the ‘Israel destruction clock’, IRGC internal security HQs, and more.”
Officials said they are surgically targeting assets “maintaining the regime’s stability”.
Some political prisoners have been banged up in the hellhole for decades.
Reports on the horrific conditions have come from those who manage to make it out.
Marziyeh Amirizadeh, 43, spent 259 days in Evin, Iran’s most notorious prison, where British mother Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe was also held.
Here, Marziyeh reveals the horror she endured – and how she rebuilt her life after her release.
Evin Prison was opened in northern Tehran in 1972, one of the final years of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi’s reign before the Shah was overthrown in the Islamic Revolution.
At the time, it was operated by his fearsome security service (SAVAK) who were famed for their ruthless torture and murder of the Shah’s political opponents.
And when the Ayatollah Khomeni took control of Iran, the violence at Evin continued and even escalated.
In the 1980s, tens of thousands of dissidents from one rebel group — the People’s Mujahidin of Iran — were hanged in Evin, in one of the most savage political mass killings in modern history.
Getty – ContributorIranian political prisoners forced to chant propaganda slogans in support of the regime[/caption]
APA dingy workshop inside the walls of Evin Prison[/caption]
Pictures show mass overcrowding in the men’s wing of Evin
In recent years, anyone who speaks out against the regime in Iran can find themselves behind Evin’s deeply fortified walls.
Bloggers, teachers and academics are arrested in the middle of the night and thrown in Evin’s squalid cells after being convicted of questionable crimes without proper legal defence.
There are said to be so many intellectuals in one wing of the prison that it’s earned the dark nickname “Evin University”.
No prisoner has ever been known to escape.
The jail bust comes as the world waits to see whether Iran will retaliate to the US’s decisive strikes on its nuclear sites.
Tehran has vowed “everlasting consequences”, but thus far only a smattering of missiles have been lobbed towards Israel.
ReutersSatellite pictures show the Fordow nuclear plant before and after the US strikes, on June 20 and June 22[/caption]
EPAThe aftermath of Iranian missiles in Tel Aviv on Sunday morning[/caption] Published: [#item_custom_pubDate]
